Story - Originally written some early 2000s

Alchemy is the improbably cute son of Mirage and Aevan.

When Aevan started making the moves on Mirage, both his sires agreed it was for the best. Alchemy is the result. He works with geneticists and lawyers, making certain that things don’t go awry for the subjects when they are wary of the Breeder. He’'s making enemies, and he loves it. He thrives in the high-tension environment of Breeding Courts, is an extraordinarily eloquent speaker, and is pretty good at his natural power of gene selection and alteration himself. He rarely actually does Breeding work. All of his senses are at 3x power, including his dream sense, empathy and gene sense. Naturally, he'’s both hypersensitive to psionics, and hyperfertile -- he can sense a hyperfertile female from a mile away. Of course, given his genetic makeup, they'’re mostly related to him already. He has a tiny office in Fi’'ir, a slightly larger tiny office on H’'lap Island, a moderately sized apartment-office in Hisai, part of the Behat enclave, a nice dark-stone homestead in F’ra, and a sizable law office in Lendau.

He carries the looks of all three lines of his ancestry: Aern's spines and two-tone hair, the Sengihr nails and sensitivity, and the Marad sleek design. What he doesn't have that Aevan does is that sad lack of control when it comes to money and servants. Alchemy can actually control his urges to spend like there is no tomorrow, and for that reason he's been able to keep up his several Holdings.

We find Alchemy during a "session", or as he should call it, a local Breeding Law Review.

**

"Don't do me any favors, you fruity smellin' Breeder," the LandHolder growled. "I've been ripped off and I want my payment back!" He punched at the desk that the group of lawyers and breeders sat around, making several of the more sedate Breeders wince. Indigo and blue-grey haired Alchemy sat unmoving and without smiling, next to his client.

His client was a Breeder who apparently couldn't make an infertile man sire a child. What a surprise. Alchemy glanced at the LandHolder, and waved his long fingered hand. "Sit down, Holder. You're not doing yourself any favors either."

"That offer is rediculous! It's less than a third of what I put up for this sham!" The black-haired and dark-red skinned man was certainly angry, Alchemy thought. "I want it all back! Not some of it, one-hundred-per-cent!" He punctuated the air with his stubby finger.

Alchemy wondered what in the world would have compelled his client to even accept a proposal to help this ... thing... breed. The fewer of his type in the world, the better.

"We've discussed this, Holder Afnai," Alchemy stated, "your payments were put to the best use that my client could possibly give you. You're just infertile, and that's all there is to say about it. The machinery and time, efforts on Breeder Wilwo's part, supplies and communication/transportation costs have all been duly documented."

"I don't give a bleeding hern's hindparts about documentation! My money wasn't thrown at this bozo for him to just put it all into his fancy house! I want it back!"

Alchemy detected just a moment too late that the man had grown far beyond any socially acceptable level of anger -- but did have the reflexes in him to duck when the thick crimson-colored fist came waving at him. Alchemy raised his head back up, as the rest of the assembled law givers gasped in horror. Some even backed up on their expensive chairs and looked to be about to dive below the table.

"Now now, Holder Afnai, if you keep that up you'll be in Bond for damages incurred here. And I would be willing to bet that you'd lose any appeals for your money then." Alchemy said, quietly and calm, but with an edge in his vibrant violet colored eyes. They were already narrow, barely slits, but even that was enough to see the glint in them. From across the table, Afnai's lawyer lamely attempted to get his client to calm down.

When it seemed half likely that Afnai was going to explode, something else attracted Alchemy's attention. Something horridly ill-timed. A sort of popping boom-sound, followed by the low hiss of jet engines.

"Oh, not now," Alchemy whispered. He could hear this happening from who knew how far away, but the alien ships had come overhead. Lendau was a huge strategic target, everyone knew it. Everyone who worked or Held land there knew that it could be in grave danger from the alien attackers. But no one knew quite when or where they would land to attack.

When Alchemy was distracted, his eyes searching the skyline through the large window on the far side of the room, he didn't have the care to devote his concentration on Afnai. The disgruntled land holder took a second swing at Alchemy, striking him so hard he almost spun out of his chair.

Amid the gasps and shouts of the legal crew, someone else finally heard the jets overhead. The sound of sure doom without their protection: the dragon masters.

"That was entirely off base, Land Holder," Alchemy said, returning his caustic gaze to the fuming man. Alchemy rubbed his cheek where the man's fist had impacted, there was a fracture through his bone -- but the same ability which allowed Alchemy to detect such a thing, also allowed him to almost automatically regenerate the damage. While the others were reeling in shock from the Holder's attack, the rest were clamoring to the large window.

"They're coming," one hissed, desperation in his voice. His partner was silent, she stood with what Alchemy detected was great sadness.

How the aliens affected everyone so differently, Alchemy thought. If they had only come with the idea to settle and blend in... But no, they had to come and take what they believed was theirs. The world wasn't theirs, at all. It in a way would belong only to the brutish natives who had been forced back to their small continent of Neres... A group of xenophobic, dangerous and short-lived hairy creatures unfit to even call a society.

Alchemy stood, while the others were distracted, and aimed a blast of clouding at Afnai. The man would come out of this knowing only that he'd been shown out, sued for damages, and put into Bond by the next week.

The rest of the room's inhabitants, including Afnai's lawyer, still stood in awe and fear looking at the black-winged jet fighters which swarmed about the clouds. Their jets were slow to adjust to the atmosphere, apparently their arrival through space took a moment to orient from.

"Hmn." Alchemy said, "rather like dragon teleportation..." He left the room and later remembered that he ought to make sure that his office workers cleared out the legal teams when night fell. Most likely they'd all be standing there for hours, watching the firefights in the sky.

Of course, any travel in and out of Lendau at this point, during an attack, was out of the question. He slunk out of the office and into the lot under the complex where his carriage waited. The Steeds were nervous, and well they should be. Loud noises overhead rarely did anything good for them. The poor beasts were out of Alchemy's telepathic range, unlike most of the Kshau line. The wingless steed was nervous but the driver settled him before they left for Alchemy's home.

The Lendau office was only a third the size of his homestead here, though land rates were at a premium in a huge city like this his place was still something to behold. But it held little interest for the breed-lawyer. Something deeper in his gut told him that only one thing really mattered today.

And that was the dragons above, driving the aliens away. He sat on the patio of his suburban homestead, watching the sky. His eyes were so sharp that they could detect the smoke coming from the jets as the dragons pursuing them blasted flames. He could see the dragons blood being spilled, as the aliens' dangerous projectile guns spat their ammunition out in obscene waves at them.

Their tactics were evolving, Alchemy noticed. The aliens had long realized that the dragons in the air were mostly immune to fire. But they still had flesh to damage. Their insides could be gutted, he'd seen a squadron of alien ships armed only with razor-edged wings on their jets... Fortunately for everyone the dragons on the scene that survived managed to kill every last one of them -- they couldn't bear a successful raiding party knowing a tactic like that!

Six jets, two dragons. The dragons continued to burn their flames, brave Masters on the ground or floating on the water-bound support crafts far out to sea, commanding them to press in. One of the alien ships managed to strafe Lendau's industrial section, Alchemy learned by listening to his neighbor's loudly-tuned video. Though half a klik away, he could hear it clearly enough. The reporter was frantic, as she described the damage.

But it was nothing like the damage that would happen if the aliens weren't stopped.

"Perhaps it's time they were stopped entirely," Alchemy said to himself. His slave Merona knew better than to think she was being spoken to, as she offered her Lord a tray of food. Alchemy absently took a bite of a pastry, but thought harder on his revelation.

The aliens could be stopped, but only if they were followed. And their dragons, even their Zekiran technology, wasn't up to that. They had attempted to retro-engineer the jets, but the fuels the aliens used were in poor supply on Zekira.

There were a number of individuals Alchemy knew of, his great-uncle Juvon being one of them, who could actually teleport across spaces. But he knew not one of them could transport themselves across the whole distance from Zekira to the next planet out in their system. It was just too far.

But... Alchemy knew that there were other worlds with dragons. Of late, his friends among the Kshaus had been speaking of their genre-hopping ability, and there was poor Simon who couldn't get far enough away from his mother -- he'd gone through different worlds, and found himself a beautiful white dragon.

"But do I have the resolve needed to actually master a dragon?" Alchemy again muttered to himself. Then he shook his head. "No, no, not master... This requires a far better bond than a mere impression at birth..." He put the rest of the dinner the slave had prepared back onto the tray, took his drink with him, into his den.

Though he had not shown any animal Tunings, nor any dragon ones either, Alchemy knew better than to think he could wait for a dragon nest to show up on the Breeder Net. Though he was powerful enough in breeding law circles, he didn't think he had the sway on the Dragon Masters to get into that without at least some kind of power.

But that wasn't his only option. He knew that others in his line had gone from Zekira and offworld, his grandsire and sort-of other gransire too, both Sengihr and Kshau were known as riders in their own ways. And of course his mother had given birth to, well, a lot of people who wound up riders one way or another. Alchemy intended to add himself to that list.

It was late in the evening when he found the reference he was looking for. His older sister Alchemy had been whisked away to a place called Ryslen weyr. It was between worlds, catering to needs such as this. And their need was great. In Amaranth's time, only about a hundred years before now, the Aliens had barely begun to scratch at the defenses of the world. But Zekira was still their prize today, and they would send larger numbers in.

He knew Amaranth came back a rider, but beyond that, they were not remarkably close. This was so long before he was born, too, that he wasn't sure what was happening with her today. But ... He also knew that dragons could go through time as well as space.

And if he could get to that hatching where Amaranth resided, he'd be able to possibly get in on something much more important than his pale half-sister knew. They'd be able to strike the aliens at their source.

They would be able to follow the aliens, to their own world. Strike terror into them on their home ground.

"See how they like it." He said, calm. Jaw set, Alchemy found old records of who to contact and discovered that they were in fact still around. Older riders, with battle scarred dragons. If Zekirans didn't live so bloody long, he would never have gotten the chance to get to Ryslen. But they did. And luckily for him, the Chanay brothers had a mutation running through their blood which let them live even longer than normal.

It would only be a matter of time, then. Before Alchemy had a determined, heart-bonded dragon by his side. He was completely confident in himself. Knowing nothing whatsoever about ranks of dragons, types he might find elsewhere, or even what he was going to do with his law practice if he did come back with a dragon, Alchemy packed up. O'sh Chanay, father of Shire and Moshai, flew him on dragonback to the one place he wanted to be more than anything.

Ryslen Weyr.

***

It was easier to shrug off comments made by the other candidates at this hatching than Alchemy expected. He was green after all. Well, his ever-so-distant half-sister Amaranth was lavender, and there were furry people as well as folk who dug themselves right up from under the hatching sands -- unexpectedly, from what Alchemy could tell.

Amaranth had looked him over good and hard before grinning at him and telling him in no uncertain terms to keep himself away from her when he thought she was most attractive. Alchemy didn't have a clue what she meant, but took the words to heart.

The eggs were certainly worth looking at, Alchemy decided. His trips to the hatching sands, along with the other (and younger) candidates, were frequent. The golden mother of the eggs permitted only so much closeness, and then she got snippy. Everyone backed off when she said so, including her night-bronze mate.

Alchemy traded information with his sister, knowing that she would be going back to a time before him: he'd just broken the primary rule of time travel. But then again, he wasn't speaking to HIMSELF in a prior era, was he? He was making someone ELSE quite knowledgable. They were both wondering how Ten was doing - they knew that he was waiting for his own bonded dragon, at a place called Vella Crean.

But now, the hatching here at Ryslen had started and everyone was called down to the red sands.

Though Amaranth and Alchemy didn't understand why everyone was slightly disappointed by it, the first to hatch was a lovely bright colored blue dragonet. Suddenly... All the emotions of the people around him started to change. Excitement turned to wonder, and hope to anxiety for some. Alchemy tried to concentrate on his own feelings... And he wasn't sure where he stood there.

Another dragonet hatched, a dark-brown who bonded shortly. Then, a dark colored green came into the world. Everyone was pleased, it was a good hatching so far, but there was a pensive feeling too.

And that feeling suddenly changed, for one young man from Zekira. A bronze dragonet climbed from his shell, and walked carefully out to Alchemy. He was large, graceful. Alchemy looked at his eyes, they were swirling in colors which he suddenly understood to mean 'hungry' and 'seeking'. But they shortly turned more to 'hungry, feed me!' because in a mere moment, the dragon bonded to Alchemy.

I thought I felt someone worth my while, the dragon announced to Alchemy alone. The dragon's voice was smooth like his color, a creamy rich metallic shade of bronze. There were other candidates bonding at that time, but both dragon and new rider ignored them wholly in favor of exploring each other's minds. Alchemy thought he detected a wry streak, perceptive and useful, in the dragon. Defaenyath caught a whiff of his rider's love of experience and wanted to join in.

And, if you had not found me? Would you have just walked away from the sands? Alchemy asked, but the dragon did not bother to answer. Why should he? He'd bonded!

They left the sands and their sisters, who found one another shortly thereafter.

**

"He's such a handsome one," one of the local ladies commented on Defaenyath. Or perhaps they were talking about Alchemy, but either of them would be happy to take the credit.

It was me they were talking about, Def said, smug. He stood and waved his large wings, and you know it!

"I hardly think women on two legs would be talking about four-legged ones like you..." Alchemy said, while flipping through his handbook for riders. "And besides, we've got work to do. You know that you're going to be fitted with a harness today."

I ... suppose I am. I do not think it will remain on me for very long. Besides, I am going to grow out of it.

"There will be other harnesses," Alchemy laughed, "you know they can make more than one..."

He sensed a bit of disappointment in the bronze, but they attended the fitting session anyway...

**

Now, tell me again. Make it make sense, Alchemy. I trust you to make it sensible this time.

"All right. Def, we're going to teleport back to my home world, which is far away. We're going to a place that's in the future of your clutch mate's bond Amaranth. Since we came from two different times. She will stay back at hers, and we will go to mine."

The big bronze swung his tail slowly back and forth, and his eyes indicated his displeasure at having to hear this nonsense again.

But how will we possibly mate if we're in different times?

You're not GOING to mate with her! Amaranth's my sister, and Racynioth's yours!

There is nothing wrong with that in either of our worlds, from what your memories state. Why do you have a problem with it now?

Because if Amaranth and I ... mate, she'll become pregnant. While it's probably not bad for your kind, it'd be less easy on both of us. Our mother is the same--

Then you are less than pure siblings! See!?

Alchemy wanted to extend his coersion powers to the dragon, but knew it would never work. It never had. So, he simply told the dragon, "you'll find a mate in our time, there are more dragons there anyway. And they'll doubtless be descendants of Racy, so you should be happy. We're going to make our impact in the skies not on the sands, okay?"

Defaenyath remained unconvinced, but allowed Alchemy to put the coordinates for their teleportation in his mind clearly. It would be a shorter trip than had been at the start- it seemed that the planets or the space between them had gotten closer...